Editing Capital punishment (section)

==History of abolition==
{{See also|Use of capital punishment by country#Abolition chronology}}
[[File:Emperor Shomu.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Emperor Shōmu]] banned the death penalty in Japan in 724.]]
In 724 AD in Japan, the death penalty was banned during the reign of [[Emperor Shōmu]] but the abolition only lasted a few years.<ref name=Marazziti>{{cite book|author=Mario Marazziti|title=13 ways of looking at the death penalty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J_5MBAAAQBAJ|date=2015|publisher=Seven Stories Press|isbn=978-1-60980-567-8|page=5}}</ref> In 818, [[Emperor Saga]] abolished the death penalty under the influence of [[Shinto]] and it lasted until 1156.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=1472|title=Encyclopedia of Shinto|publisher=kokugakuin.ac.jp|access-date=5 September 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519153543/http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=1472|archive-date=19 May 2011}}</ref><ref name="horj">{{cite web|url=https://www.shugiin.go.jp/internet/itdb_rchome.nsf/html/rchome/shiryo/houmu_200806_shikeiseido.pdf/$File/houmu_200806_shikeiseido.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221120153327/https://www.shugiin.go.jp/internet/itdb_rchome.nsf/html/rchome/shiryo/houmu_200806_shikeiseido.pdf/$File/houmu_200806_shikeiseido.pdf|script-title=ja:死刑制度に関する資料|page=6|language=ja|publisher=[[House of Representatives (Japan)|House of Representatives]]|archive-date=20 November 2022|access-date=6 April 2023}}</ref> In China, the death penalty was banned by [[Emperor Xuanzong of Tang]] in [[AD 747|747]], replacing it with exile or [[scourging]]. However, the ban only lasted 12 years.<ref name=Marazziti/> Following his conversion to Christianity in 988, [[Vladimir the Great]] abolished the death penalty in [[Kievan Rus']], along with torture and mutilation; corporal punishment was also seldom used.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ware |first=Timothy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UY8UnwEACAAJ&pg=PT85 |title=The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity |date=1993 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-192500-4 |language=en}}</ref>

In England, a public statement of opposition was included in [[The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards]], written in 1395.
In the [[Post-classical history|post-classical]] [[Republic of Poljica]], life was ensured as a basic right in its [[Poljica Statute]] of 1440.
Sir [[Thomas More]]'s ''[[Utopia (More book)|Utopia]]'', published in 1516, debated the benefits of the death penalty in dialogue form, coming to no firm conclusion. More was himself executed for treason in 1535.

[[File:Leopold II as Grand Duke of Tuscany by Joseph Hickel 1769.jpg|thumb|upright|Leopold I, [[Grand Duke of Tuscany]] (later [[Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor]]), abolished the death penalty throughout [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany|his realm]] in 1786, making it the first country in modern history to do so.]]
More recent opposition to the death penalty stemmed from the book of the Italian [[Cesare Beccaria]] ''Dei Delitti e Delle Pene'' ("[[On Crimes and Punishments]]"), published in 1764. In this book, Beccaria aimed to demonstrate not only the injustice, but even the futility from the point of view of [[social policy|social welfare]], of torture and the death penalty. Influenced by the book, [[Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor|Grand Duke Leopold II]] of Habsburg, the future emperor of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], abolished the death penalty in the then-independent [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany]], the first abolition in modern times. On 30 November 1786, after having ''de facto'' blocked executions (the last was in 1769), Leopold promulgated the reform of the [[penal code]] that abolished the death penalty and ordered the destruction of all the instruments for capital execution in his land. In 2000, Tuscany's regional authorities instituted an annual holiday on 30 November to commemorate the event. The event is commemorated on this day by 300 cities around the world celebrating [[Cities for Life Day]]. Leopolds brother [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph]], the then emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, abolished in his immediate lands in 1787 capital punishment, which though only lasted until 1795, after both had died and Leopolds son [[Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Francis]] abolished it in his immediate lands. In Tuscany it was reintroduced in 1790 after Leopolds departure becoming emperor. Only after 1831 capital punishment was again at times stopped, though it took until 2007 to abolish [[capital punishment in Italy]] completely.

The [[Kingdom of Tahiti]] (when the island was independent) was the first legislative assembly in the world to abolish the death penalty in 1824. Tahiti commuted the death penalty to banishment.<ref name="Tahiti">Alexandre Juster, L'histoire de la Polynésie française en 101 dates : 101 événements marquants qui ont fait l'histoire de Tahiti et ses îles, Les éditions de Moana, 2016 ({{ISBN|9782955686010}}), p. 40</ref>

In the United States, Michigan was the first state to ban the death penalty, on 18 May 1846.<ref>See Caitlin [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=micounty;cc=micounty;rgn=full%20text;idno=APK1036.0001.001;didno=APK1036.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000444 pp. 420–22] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520203016/http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=micounty;cc=micounty;rgn=full%20text;idno=APK1036.0001.001;didno=APK1036.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000444 |date=20 May 2011 }}</ref>

The short-lived revolutionary [[Roman Republic (19th century)|Roman Republic]] banned capital punishment in 1849. [[Venezuela]] followed suit and abolished the death penalty in 1863<ref>Roger G. Hood. ''The death penalty: a worldwide perspective'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2002. p. 10</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Capital punishment {{!}} Definition, Debate, Examples, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/capital-punishment |access-date=2023-04-03 |website=Britannica  |language=en}}</ref> and [[Use of capital punishment by nation|San Marino]] did so in 1865. The last execution in San Marino had taken place in 1468. In Portugal, after legislative proposals in 1852 and 1863, the death penalty was abolished in 1867. The last execution in Brazil was 1876; from then on all the condemnations were commuted by the Emperor [[Pedro II of Brazil|Pedro II]] until its abolition for civil offences and military offences in peacetime in 1891. The penalty for crimes committed in peacetime was then reinstated and abolished again twice (1938–1953 and 1969–1978), but on those occasions it was restricted to acts of terrorism or subversion considered "internal warfare" and all sentences were commuted and not carried out.

Many countries have abolished capital punishment either in law or in practice. Since [[World War II]], there has been a trend toward abolishing capital punishment. Capital punishment has been completely abolished by 108 countries, a further seven have done so for all offences except under special circumstances and 26 more have abolished it in practice because they have not used it for at least 10 years and are believed to have a policy or established practice against carrying out executions.<ref name="amnesty2015">{{cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act50/3487/2016/en/ |title=Death Sentences and Executions Report 2015 |date=5 April 2016 |publisher=[[Amnesty International]] |access-date=10 August 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814003146/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act50/3487/2016/en/ |archive-date=14 August 2016}}</ref>

In the United States between 1972 and 1976 the death penalty was declared unconstitutional based on the ''[[Furman v. Georgia]]'' case, but the 1976 ''[[Gregg v. Georgia]]'' case once again permitted the death penalty under certain circumstances. Further limitations were placed on the death penalty in ''[[Atkins v. Virginia]]'' (2002; death penalty unconstitutional for people with an [[intellectual disability]]) and ''[[Roper v. Simmons]]'' (2005; death penalty unconstitutional if defendant was under age 18 at the time the crime was committed). In the United States, 23 of the 50 states and [[Washington, D.C.]] ban capital punishment.

In the United Kingdom, it was abolished for murder (leaving only treason, [[piracy with violence]], [[arson in royal dockyards]] and a number of wartime military offences as capital crimes) for a five-year experiment in 1965 and permanently in 1969, the last execution having taken place in 1964. It was abolished for all offences in 1998.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stephen-stratford.co.uk/capital_hist.htm|title=History of Capital Punishment|first=Stephen |last=Stratford|access-date=19 May 2022|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100808063231/http://www.stephen-stratford.co.uk/capital_hist.htm|archive-date=8 August 2010}}</ref> Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, first entering into force in 2003, prohibits the death penalty in all circumstances for those states that are party to it, including the United Kingdom from 2004.

Abolition occurred in [[Capital punishment in Canada#History|Canada in 1976]] (except for some military offences, with complete abolition in 1998); in [[Capital punishment in France#Abolition|France in 1981]]; and in [[Capital punishment in Australia#Commonwealth|Australia in 1973]] (although the state of [[Capital punishment in Australia#Western Australia|Western Australia]] retained the penalty until 1984). In South Australia, under the premiership of then-Premier Dunstan, the ''Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935'' (SA) was modified so that the death sentence was changed to life imprisonment in 1976.

In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly affirmed in a formal resolution that throughout the world, it is desirable to "progressively restrict the number of offences for which the death penalty might be imposed, with a view to the desirability of abolishing this punishment".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newsbatch.com/deathpenalty.htm|title=Death Penalty|publisher=Newsbatch.com|date=1 March 2005|access-date=23 August 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100724130457/http://www.newsbatch.com/deathpenalty.htm|archive-date=24 July 2010}}</ref>